Traditionally, according to an example, mariners and pilots obtain weather information either before departure or by voice reports delivered over radio connections. It has also been possible for mariners to receive text and simple facsimile pictorial weather diagrams transmitted on schedules by various weather services for specific regional areas of interest.
Services are emerging for delivering and presenting additional weather data to mariners and pilots while underway or in flight. This data includes image files and data array files. The latter include General Regularly distributed Information in Binary form (“GRIB”) and WeatherObjects Markup Language (“wxml”) data files. Data array files encode any of a number of weather values, such as wind speed and direction, wave height, direction and period, barometric pressure, sea surface temperature, and other values for each of an array of points in the area around the mariner. The GRIB file format has been standardized for worldwide distribution and use. These files require processing at the receiver end before they can be viewed meaningfully but are compact for easier transmission, and permit greater flexibility in the manner in which weather data can be manipulated and presented. The common disadvantage of existing weather delivery and display systems, however, is that the weather information must be interpreted by the mariner or pilot and mentally transformed to allow it to be used for decision making, particularly with respect to future vehicle routes.